Mid Century Fiber

  Did you know that there is a difference between shutting down and restarting your Windows 10 computer? In older versions of Windows, they did the same thing, shutting down programs and powering off your machine, but this changed in 2012 with the introduction of Windows 8 and a new feature called Fast Startup. This feature carried over to Windows 10 and is enabled by default when a user decides to use Shut Down. Fast Startup was designed to shorten the time it takes to get your computer up and running. It does this by not shutting the Windows kernel. The kernel is the core of the operating system, it’s what allows the software and hardware to work together. When Shut Down is used all your programs are closed but the kernel is saved, ready to go for the next time you power up your computer. While this does provide for faster start times, it won’t clear out any errors or issues that you may be experiencing.   Restart does shut down all the computer’s processes, including th...

       Password entropy is a measurement of difficulty, having higher password entropy makes it harder for hackers to gain access to your accounts. According to a Verizon Data Breach Report in 2017 “81% of hacking related breaches used either weak or stolen passwords”.      Some of the ways hackers gain access is by using simple guesses, such as “123456”, “qwerty”, and “password” which were all found in the top 5 passwords of 2021. Other ways include brute forcing passwords which utilizes programs that attempt dozens of guesses every minute based on mathematical probabilities, or by using social media to do research on the intended target and make guesses based on the information they can gleam from those accounts.  The easiest way to make sure you have a good entropy score is to utilize a passphrase.      A passphrase is a string of words, numbers, and symbols that don’t have to be grammatically correct or sensical. An example of a...

  Temperatures are finally starting to come down (subject to change within the hour due to being in Illinois). In my house this means that my wife has asked if we should turn on the furnace a half dozen times or so over the weekend.   I say no, but it’s a losing battle, and I will eventually give in, but why not take full advantage a piece of smart home technology known as the Smart Thermostat?      A smart thermostat is a Wi-Fi enabled thermostat that allows you to control your home’s heating and cooling temperature setting from your smart devices, such as a phone, tablet, or computer. This allows you the perks of being able to remotely control your heating and cooling systems, track your energy usage, and ultimately save money. No more wasting money by heating or cooling your home while you’re away. Today’s thermostats can also react to changing weather predictions, they can proactively begin cooling your home before a heatwave, or to kick on the heat if it ...